Change Permissions in Bulk?

[Lemur]

Hey, unintended consequence of moving hard drives around between computers is that my old storage drive has incorrect permissions.

So when I go to open an old file, I get denied, and am forced to right-click and change the security settings.

On every damn file.

There must be a better way. Anybody have an app for Windows for bulk permissions changes?

Heck, even something as ghetto as a BAT file I can re-write would be okay.

This is killing me. KILLING ME.

[Husar]

I usually handle permissions per folder so that they apply to everything in that folder. Is that not an option or does it not work?

[Beskar]

I know for things like "Read Only" there is a pop-up which asks "Want to apply to all sub-folders and files as well?"

Though strangely, this is one of those things I know how to do in Linux and I am a novice on it but not Windows...

[Lemur]

I usually handle permissions per folder so that they apply to everything in that folder. Is that not an option or does it not work?

Didn't take. Yeah, that was my first instinct, change permissions and click "apply to all sub folders and items," but for whatever twisted reason ...

... hmm, maybe I should just do it again. It's Microsoft, after all, so the exact same action may, in fact, yield a new result.

-edit-

Woot! Okay, didn't fix the problem, but I ran into an entirely new error message. Tried going into the "inheritable" settings, then re-apply my ownership settings. Got this when Windows hit my library of short films that I, you know, wrote:

[Beskar]

This looks to be a solution, see if that is helpful. @Lemur

[Lemur]

This looks to be a solution, see if that is helpful. @Lemur

Ah, if you compare the screenshot I posted above, you will see that I was already on the last step of your link.

This appears to be Windows 8 getting back at me for every snide thing I've ever said about it.

Step 1: When I change security settings on an individual item, the setting take.

Step 2: When I try to make those setting inheritable, I get the "Failed to enumerate objects in the container."

Step 3: Profit!

-edit-

Okay, some ideas here. Looks like variations on the "do it three more times and then Windows will cooperate" theme.

-edit of the edit-

Nope, doesn't work for me. No matter how many times I re-apply the inheritable settings, I get the "Failed to enumerate" message.

[Husar]

It seems like for every bug you get in Windows that I don't get, I get one in Linux that you don't get. Then again networking in Windows can be a pain with the authorizations, atm it works fine for me but I've had some weird issues before.

Have you tried simply restarting to reset access settings? Did you touch any of the files earlier? Are you using an administrator account (I assume you are)?

[Lemur]

Have you tried simply restarting to reset access settings?

Do you mean a simple reboot? Um, isn't that the first thing you try for everything in Windows? I mean, when in doubt, you just reboot the thing.

Or are your referencing something else?

Did you touch any of the files earlier? Are you using an administrator account (I assume you are)?

What do you mean by "touch"? This was the bulk storage drive off my old PC. Since a big part of my job is writing videos, I keep copies of the final compressions on this drive. So ... yeah, I moved the drive, which had local permissions, which got blown to hell by the new machine, which I'm now trying to fix. Apparently my new local identity, LEMUR\CUBE, does not translate to my old local identity, LEMUR\UBERBOXEN.

Yeah, admin account, for all the good it does me.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Me I'm no friends with the Windows system admin tools. So I tend to just brute force these things using Linux instead, but then again I don't use Windows for anything needing even the pretense of security.

As root from the terminal simply copy the contents of the file to another file, delete old file in an attempt to get the contents of the file copied to a location which ACLs don't see. Do this for all files you care about, using something like

echo 'cp "$1" "backup-$1" && rm -f "$1"' > /tmp/force-my-way.sh
chmod +x /tmp/force-my-way.sh
find /media/path/to/volume -type -f -name '*.pattern' -exec sh /tmp/force-my-way-sh "{}" \;

Linux NTFS drivers may be smart enough not to touch ACLs but probably won't be smart enough to create new ACL misery for you. Be careful with the find command to only match the files you really want to touch, so it's probably best to execute the find query without the -exec part to verify that first.

Finally let Windows fsck the volume to make sure Windows NTFS drivers agree with the Linux ones on the state of the disk afterwards.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Also, if you have a non-gimped version of Windows you might have PowerShell. You could spend an evening's worth of research then pit yourself in a battle of wit and willpower against Windows.

[Xiahou]

I bet you need to seize ownership of the files. I used to come across this a lot when I used to have to support servers...
Right click -> Properties -> Security Tab -> Advanced button -> Owner tab -> click edit. And if you want to push it down thru the directory structure, click the appropriate check box.

After that, you should be able to set permissions without issue.